1964

5 years old.

Start of grade school. I really wanted to go to Kindergarten badly, because my brother Gus got to go. Our school, Wade, was right across the alley from our apartment. There were two schoolyards, one to either side of the school, the one on the left for the girls and the one on the right for the boys.

Met my first homosexual kid whom we regarded as a sissy. My mom forced me to be nice to him by sending me over to his house with my Pirate kit in a shoe box. I threw it at him in anger when he called it cute.

First day of school,wandering around the schoolyard, a kid runs up to me and tells me I'm his prisoner. I punch him right in the mouth and he lets me go. I felt like a tough kid.

Started Kindergarten in September, met Tim O'Mara, a good friend of mine, and at times my best friend, all through grade school and Karen Gorden, who I thought was the prettiest little girl in the world. I loved my teacher, Miss Montgomery, and the Principal, Miss Woehr.

Miss Montgomery. A sweet woman who was also Gus's Kindergarten teacher. I remember her teaching us to read from the big Dick and Jane books.

Miss Woehr. The spinster principal of my grade school. She was a tall, plain woman with a long horsy face and straight black hair pulled back in a severe bun. She was the very picture of an old-time school marm, and I loved her enormously. She was very good to me through the trying times of my childhood, and I appreciated her honesty and respect for my little kid intelligence.

My kindergarten portrait